Geek Answers Handbook

RESTful URI Design

I am creating a RESTful API. I read

http://microformats.org/wiki/rest/urls

but this site does not give me enough "good" practice when developing my API. In particular, I will write an API (only such GET methods) that will provide functions for transforming geo-coordinates.

Example: Geohash is a unique representation of a coordinate, thus / convert / geohash / u 09tvkx0.json? Outputformat = latlong

has the meaning. On the other hand, /convert/latlong.xml?lat=65&long=13&outputformat=UTC requires two input values.

See my "question"? What makes a good API that requires more than one input parameter?

(Tried to “identify” good practice by “analyzing” Twitter and FF, but failed)

+6
rest api get
source share
2 answers

In terms of the “technically” correct REST URI, there is no difference between using query string parameters or not. RFC 3986 says:

The request component contains non-hierarchical data, which together with the data in the path component (section 3.3) serve to identify the resource

That's why it’s hard for you to find the ultimate “best practice.” Having said that, many REST APIs embed several parameters in a URI without using query strings. For example, to determine the make and model of a car, you will see websites with a URI as follows: cars.com/honda/civic. In this case, it is very obvious that the relationship between 2 and so, having everything in the URI, is “hacked”. In addition, it is much easier to adhere to the string approach without asking when you have only one parameter that uniquely identifies the resource; but if it is something like a search query, I would probably save it in the query string. In this SO question, there is an interesting discussion about various approaches.

In the above example, I will stick with the query string parameters. Although REST usually has more intuitive URLs, it really is not like REST. REST is more associated with hypermedia and HATEOAS .

+4
source share

When developing a REST API

There are several REST recommendations.
  • Abstract vs Concrete
  • CRUD operations
  • Error processing
  • API Versions
  • Filtration
  • Security
  • Google analytics
  • Documentation
  • Stability and consistency
  • URL structure

More details

0
source share

More articles:


All Articles